PAWTUCKET -- A "bait" car that the police want to be stolen so they can catch thieves red-handed is about to be put out on the street, officials announced yesterday. The car is being outfitted with high-tech equipment that will enable the police to track and stop it and make arrests.

The police said they hope that the car will help them cut auto thefts in the city, which have been on the rise lately.

Bait cars have been used successfully to cut auto thefts in California, Minnesota, Washington, Texas and Canada, according to the police in those places.

But the program has never been tried anywhere in New England, Mayor James E. Doyle said.

The number of cars stolen in the city was up 6 percent in 2004, and 9 percent last year, said police Maj. Paul King, adding that he didn't have the actual numbers.

Although Police Chief George L. Kelley III said 90 percent of the stolen cars were recovered, the situation was serious enough, Doyle said, to require a police response.

King contacted MetLife Auto & Home and got the insurance company to donate a bait car after Doyle met with Kelley and told him to work on the problem.

The police were tight-lipped about the make of the car MetLife donated, but bait cars used by police departments elsewhere have generally been vehicles popular with thieves.

The cars are outfitted with cameras, GPS tracking systems and remote-control devices that make it possible to kill the engine and lock the doors, trapping the car thief.

The bait car program has been effective even in Modesto, Calif., a city with the highest rate of car theft per capita in the country, according to Frank G. Scafidi, director of public affairs for the National Insurance Crime Bureau, an industry group that seeks to reduce auto theft and insurance fraud.

Stanislaus County, which includes the city of Modesto, had a total of 7,071 car thefts last year, according to Scafidi.

In the first six months of this year, there has been a 37-percent drop in the number of car thefts, thanks to an aggressive bait-car program, a crackdown on car thieves by the local auto theft task force, and a district attorney who sought a fourfold increase in bail in car-theft cases, Scafidi said.

In a telephone interview, Scafidi said it costs anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 to equip a bait car with high-tech tracking equipment. He said the National Insurance Crime Bureau awards local police departments grants to pay for the equipment. Pawtucket officials said they are seeking such a grant.

Pawtucket's bait-car program was unveiled at a news conference yesterday by Mayor Doyle, Chief Kelley, King, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, Detective Maj. John J. Whiting and a representative of MetLife, John T. Sargent.

Sargent acknowledged that one of the reasons MetLife was donating the car was to cut claims.

But Sargent, who is director of MetLife's special investigation unit, said MetLife was also donating the bait car because it wants to be a good corporate citizen.

Getting a car stolen is traumatic, Sargent said. Some people are never fully compensated, he said, and others don't have insurance. "So there are valid reasons to do this program," he said.

jcastell@projo.com / (401) 277-7371